Buell Lane Roundabout to Be Pushed Back

Work is underway, but a roundabout at the intersection of Buell and Toilsome Lanes in East Hampton Village is now scheduled for completion in the spring.
Christopher Walsh

The construction of a roundabout at what is known as the five corners intersection at Buell and Toilsome Lanes in East Hampton Village is well underway, but an initial forecast of completion by year’s end has been pushed back some months because of longer-than-anticipated, prerequisite utility upgrades.

The New York State Department of Transportation issued a work permit for the project in September. South Fork Asphalt, the Southampton company that was awarded a contract to perform the work, mobilized to the site on Oct. 19 and subcontracted with Keith Grimes Inc. of Bridgehampton for excavation and drainage structure installation.

The first stage of the project should conclude this week, Drew Bennett, a consulting engineer to the village, wrote in a Nov. 28 memo to the village board. That work includes the relocation, by PSEG Long Island, of one pole on Toilsome Lane. The relocation was completed in October, one month behind schedule, but the wire from the old pole to the new one has yet to be transferred, Mr. Bennett said, because of the start of drainage work and construction congestion at the intersection. The wire transfer is scheduled to happen this week, he said, but that will depend on weather conditions.

National Grid was to replace a gas main by Labor Day, Mr. Bennett said. While that was done, individual house connections to the new main and the abandonment of the old main were not completed until Nov. 17. Potholes resulting from the work were the source of complaints to the village, he said, and National Grid’s restoration of the road is still in progress.

In October, also one month later than planned, the Suffolk County Water Authority installed several hundred feet of new main at the intersection. Drainage structures, like pole bases and electrical conduits, and temporary asphalt to facilitate traffic diversions were also installed as part of the project’s first phase.

The second phase, occurring over the winter, will see limited construction, according to Mr. Bennett’s memo. It is set to begin on Saturday and conclude at the end of February. It will include off-site fabrication of the granite curb for the roundabout’s splitter islands and circle, the latter already underway. Installation of the curb and of the concrete perimeter curb will be subject to weather conditions.

In the project’s final phase, slated for March and April, installation of the granite curb and concrete perimeter curb will be completed and the center island installed. Sidewalks, light poles, fixtures, signs, and landscaping will also be installed. Temporary asphalt will be removed, new paving will be done, and the site will be restored. Final inspection by the Department of Transportation will complete the project.

“I anticipate continued periodic partial traffic diversion in the intersection throughout the project,” Mr. Bennett wrote in his memo. “We are planning to limit total intersection closure to final asphalt and striping,” which he said would take four to eight hours on each of two days, “and possibly for portions of the center island install,” which would span up to six hours, also on two days. There will be no construction activity between Dec. 24 and 26, he said.